Aurillac > Le Lioran 167km Stage 9 turned out to be a cracking day, most are still wondering what UAE were doing chasing the break. Some said they wanted to go for the stage with Del Toro, others were saying it was for Pogačar, but I don’t think either of those explanations are true, it looked like UAE were riding for the team classification. As they are almost 30 minutes down to Lidl-Trek, they couldn’t afford to let the 2 Trek riders in the break get a big advantage, so they held the break at 1-2 minutes. I could be...

Malemort > Ussel 148km Due to the extreme heat, the opening 38km of the race has been removed, leaving 147.8km. I assume the intermediate sprint point will remain where it is, which will now only be about 7km into the stage. The rest of the route remains the same. This could well be the best stage of the whole race. Everyone knows it’s going to be a breakaway stage, but if last year showed you anything, you’ll know that the GC riders can also get involved in stages like this. If you lost time on the Tourmalet, this is a...

Périgueux > Bergerac 180km Merlier got his win, but it wasn’t easy. For some reason, the ASO have decided the race needed consecutive sprint stages, not a great move, but the fast men will be delighted. 

Hagetmau > Bordeaux 175km As expected, Pogačar destroyed everyone on the Tourmalet, he really is the best there’s ever been. Stage 7 is the 2nd opportunity for the sprinters, hopefully it’s another good finish.

Pau > Gavarnie-Gèdre 186km Day 6 and the start of the proper GC battle. The riders are faced with the Tourmalet, but it’s not a mountaintop finish, so the breakaway will sniff a chance.

Lannemezan > Pau 158km Day 5 and eventually we get to the first sprint stage of the 2026 Tour de France. It’s been a tough start to the race for the fast men, but they’ve made it (apart from De Lie), now it’s time for the big gear boys to come to the party.

Carcassonne > Foix 182km UAE went full Cobra Kai today; they showed no mercy. Jonas will hope he can become Danny LaRusso, otherwise, the race is already over. Stage 4 is either a reduced sprint or a day for the breakaway, at least Cobra Kai won’t be taking another win.

Granollers > Les Angles 196km In terms of climbing metres, this is the 3rd hardest stage in the whole race, which is crazy as the profile doesn’t look that bad. 4000m of climbing over 200km isn’t to be sniffed at, this is going to be a demanding day in the saddle and the winner will be a quality bike rider. Due to the difficulty, this one looks like it’ll go the way of the breakaway, controlling a 4000m stage is beyond the ability of most teams. Due to forest fires, the final 40km will be done without fans on the roadside.

Tarragona > Barcelona 169km What a start to the Tour de France. Visma nailed their tactics and won the stage, Vingegaard leads Pogačar by 12 seconds, it’s been a while since he held a lead over the Slovenian. Stage 2 starts down the coast in Tarragona, heading back up to Barcelona, before completing a few laps of a circuit. It’s too hard for the sprinters, which opens the door to many scenarios.

Barcelona > Barcelona 19.6km TTT Right then, it’s time for the start of the 2026 Tour de France. The race kicks off down in Barcelona, and the organisers have decided to go with a team time trial. Normally, the team time is taken when the 4th rider crossed the line, now the 1st rider home will set the team time. This format has been used in Paris-Nice over the last few years and it was also tried out in this year’s Dauphiné, the organisers clearly liked what they saw. Due to the distance, gaps should be relatively small, I’m expecting a close...